Friday, July 30, 2010

I hope you missed me, but not too much."Where have you been?" you ask. Where haven't I been, I answer. A dear friend that lives in southern California, opened up her beautiful home to six wild, creative, and a little bit crazy women. So that makes seven women, two dogs, and one man. Did I mention that my friend's husband, Ray, is a saint? The main reason we traveled south was to attend the Long Beach Quilt Show. If we would have only gone to the quilt show, I would have come home creatively inspired. But in the six days I was away, every moment was filled with an artful adventure. One of the places we visited, was a piece of merchandising paradise, called 'Roger's Gardens', located in Corona del Mar. I was a visual merchandiser for twenty some years, so walking into Roger's was like walking back into one of my favorite times of life. I love merchandising so much, I would almost pay someone to let me do it again. Every once in a while, I do an art show or a home studio tour and I get to merch my own product, now that's a blast. I hope you enjoy the tour of 'Roger's Gardens' through my eyes.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Most people enjoy items from the past. There are a few though that are creeped out by vintage or antique things. Maybe they had nightmares about grandma's grandfather clock, or maybe they got lost in an antique store as a child. But for the most, we take pleasure in finding those long ago everyday items that are now called vintage. Even the name is pretty, vintage, not old, or used, but vintage. I love the whole concept of finding something you remember from grandma's kitchen, buying it and thinking of her whenever you look at it. She would probably laugh and say "that old thing" and we would tell her not old G'ma, vintage.

As artists or as people in general, we go through different phases. Some of the artistic phases have to do with mood. That mood can be expressed through color. I love all the colors of the rainbow or better yet, the colors in the 64 box of crayons. I know they come in bigger boxes now. But when I was a kid, 64 was the magic number. I've heard or read other artist talking about the wonder of this special little gold and green box. I'm no exception to this. My brother, sister, and I would each get a new box every Christmas. It may have never been the first toy played with that morning, but it was the one played with most throughout the coming year. One of my fondest memories is of the three of us spending most of the day playing in a little front yard pool. After too much fun and sun, we came into the house, took off our wet bathing suites, and put on our Dad's white tee shirts. The rest of the day was spent laying on the living room floor, coloring and watching cartoons. It's funny how we remember the simple times when we look back. Open a box of crayons, take in that unique waxy smell, and see what childhood memory comes back to you. I started talking about different phases at the beginning of this paragraph, but got a little side tracked. Sometime I use earth tones in my art and sometimes it's all about green, my true favorite color. This year however, it's got to be bright. Big, bright, and cheerful, that's the artistic phase I'm in right now. Here are some examples, hope you enjoy.

This weekend my family stepped back in time. My husband and I took our kids to the Santa Barbara County Fair to see the Beach Boys. It was a long wait and standing room only, but we had a great time. There are only two original members left, but the music still sounds the same. My kids are familiar with the band from '"Full House" reruns. They watch that show like I used to watch "I Love Lucy". Besides that, you can't live at the beach and not be exposed to 1960's beach music, no matter what decade it is. We live near one of the last beaches that you can still drive on. We love to jump in our truck and drive on the sand while "Wipe Out" is playing at full volume on the CD. Oh ya, all the windows have to be down, no matter how cold it is outside. At the concert, I enjoyed the surf songs the best, especially listening to "Little Surfer Girl", while holding my surfer girl, Annie. Of course, Mitch and Austin liked the hot rod songs the best . It was fun watching everyone dancing and singing to songs they probably listened to as a teenager. We especially enjoyed the man right in front of us. He was in his own little world, twisting and dancing like he was on a surf board, back in the day. As we walked away, the music still playing in the background, Austin, our 14 year old turned to us and said " Well, that was worth the wait." I had to agree with him.

Friday, July 16, 2010

I'm so excited, next week I'm heading down to Long Beach to the quilt show. I've never been to a show of this size. I'll be leaving on Tuesday morning with a bunch of friends. How much fun is that? It's time for me to get out of the studio and get renewed with creative energy. You know what they say about all work and no play? I'm getting to be a very dull girl. These are the ATC's I made to trade. I made about 75 of them. So hopefully , I'll come home with 75 cards from different artists and make some new friends along the way.

So tell me, who cries at Toystory 3? Well, apparently my husband and I do. When we left the house to see this movie, I would have never guessed that we were going to come home emotionally drained and with bloodshot eyes. It's not the first time we've cried at the movies, but come on, this movie is about toys. I knew the story line before getting to the theater. Andy is going off to college. Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang realize they are being left behind, as Andy grows up and moves on. If my husband and I would have seen this movie a few years ago, it probably wouldn't have had this same effect on us. But you see, right now at this moment, our dining room table is covered with out-grown toys. As parents, we are always moving out old toys and new ones move in to take their places. Some toys have emotional attachments to them and are harder to say goodbye to. Some toys go into boxes, because we just can't part with them. I'm talking about the parents attachment, not the kid's. Well, the toys on my table are different from the rest. They are the last toys. I'm sad to say the "Lego days" of our life are over. I will never again find those tiny colored blocks hiding in my carpet, with the bottom of my foot. You would think that would be a good thing. Something else happened that same day, that didn't help. I was standing in my studio looking out the window. My neighbors were driving by in their motor home with car in tow. They were leaving on a summer long family vacation, in which at the end, they will be dropping their youngest son, Mike, at college. As they drove past, I got a tear in my eye, thinking life as they had known it was over. Back to the movie, it's just wrong to be wearing 3D glasses, eating popcorn, and crying at the same time. I was actually glad to have the glasses on. I was able to hide behind the dark lenses as the parents with younger children walked out of the theater. Their day is coming.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Today I'm teaching my 10 your old daughter, Annie how to use the sewing machine. She made me pinkie promise, so there's no getting out of it. I remember learning how to sew on the same Singer Touch and Sew many years ago. My Mom made all our clothes and all my doll clothes on this same machine. I love tradition. I teasingly told Annie not to sew her fingers together. If she did, she would be a southpaw with one large finger and a thumb. Daisy the poodleroni, also shown in this picture, is Annie's partner in crime. She doesn't do much sewing, but she loves to eat spools of thread. With that face, who cares ?

Well, all the walls in my studio are full, as is the rest of my house. What's an artist to do ? Make things that hang from the ceiling, that's what. What do you think about my wacky mobiles? I started off with copper wire from the hardware store. Using pliers, I bent the wire into free form figure eight and curly shapes. I used 18 gauge on the largest one and wire about the size of a coat hanger for the other three. Next, I made little silk hearts and strips of silk to hang the wire frames from. I have never gotten rid of a single piece of jewelry, since I was a child. I decided this project was worthy of my 1970's puka shell necklace (I've dated myself haven't I?). I got down my childhood ballerina jewelry box, (ballerina still turns) to retrieve this cherished treasure. I also have been collecting these really cool charms I found at Michael's, called "Industrial Chic". They are perfectly named little bits of heaven. Nuts and bolts with a new trendy twist. So with some old and some new, and a lot of glass beads, this project was at full speed. When all was said and done, the necklace sacrifice was worth it. It took me three days to make four mobiles and four days to clean up the mess. I'm going to keep the largest one, give one to a friend, and put the other two on my Etsy site,www.crimsonheartstudios.etsy.com. Check it out!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Greetings from Crimson Heart Studios! My name is Cindy & I'm a longtime mixed media artist, but a new-kid-on-the-block when it comes to blogging. I mainly work in polymer clay, but dabble in many other art forms. There are just too many fun things waiting to be tried. Here are a couple of my latest endeavors.

About Me

I'm a mixed media artist, that has been on a creative journey most of my life. I'm a native Californian, and I live on the central coast. I've been married for thirty two years to the love of my life. The years with Mitch have flown by. We have two great kids. Austin is seventeen and just starting his senior year of high school. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I can't wait to see what he grows up to be. We also have a sometimes sweet and always smart daughter, Annie. She spends a lot of time with me in the studio, and is very creative. I can't forget the fluffy four legged children, Daisy & Milo. They never fail to make me smile. I'm so grateful that I get the privilege to create. I hope you enjoy my art, and I thank you for being a part of this blogging adventure. You can contact me at crimsonheartstudios@charter.net